Facebook looked set for a significant expansion of its teams in the UK and Ireland, after reportedly opting to develop a new WhatsApp payment service in the countries.

The social media giant is expected to hire around 100 people in London and Dublin to develop the payments platform, growing its workforce in the markets by a quarter, Financial Times (FT) reported. It will reportedly appoint software engineers in London and operations staff in London.

FT said WhatsApp has around 400 employees, with India, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico its most popular markets. The company told the newspaper it opted to develop its payment product in and around the UK because it attracts a multicultural workforce from countries where WhatsApp is popular.

Its expanded workforce will be charged with building a payments function and products focused on safety and spam on the app.

The company made initial recruitment moves in late 2018, when WhatsApp engineers visited London.

Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined plans to launch payments services across several countries in 2019. It is currently trialling mobile payments on WhatsApp in India.